Driving test delays continue… Insurance costs for new drivers are also rising
DUBLIN: New drivers are paying more for insurance due to delays in driving tests. Insurance brokers say they will have to pay a premium of €300 to €600 more. They have been waiting for more than a year for a driving test, which has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they’ve also had to pay hundreds of euros in insurance. The longer the wait for the test, the higher the insurance cost.
More than 96,000 people are currently waiting for the driving test in Ireland. The majority of them are under the age of 40. Some 20,000 people are also waiting for the theory test. The current situation is that a person who passes the theory test by the end of October would not be able to take the driving test even at the end of April next year.
Transport Minister Emon Ryan had said the country currently only has the facility to conduct driving tests for 4,881 people a week. But the government has not taken any steps to increase the facilities.
A spokesman for the Road Safety Authority said the current waiting list could be cleared within three months if the current 25,000 monthly theory tests were increased to 50,000. He also said that the RSA intends to reduce the waiting period for a driving test to 10 weeks. The RSA said efforts are underway to manage the waiting lists.
Meanwhile, the Transport Minister’s announcement that the waiting time would be lowered to 15 weeks has not yet executed.
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